DEMONSTRATIONS
IN LONDON
20
November 2003
Protestors
in London called for peace, diplomacy and democracy
throughout the world. An estimated 350,000 protestors
marched from the University of London to Trafalgar
Square in Central London. A Colombian congressman
criticized the governments of Colombia, the US and
the UK for waging war on the world's poor. Human rights
lawyers and activists demanded action from Tony Blair
to promote human rights in UK foreign policy and to
seek to influence Pres. Bush to do the same.
A
representative to the European Parliament from the
British Green Party called for political recognition
of the dangers of climate change and of uniltateral
military action. A Scottish politician said that Bush
and Blair would be "carried away on a river of
protest" and that the American President had
"hijacked the American Constitution". One
speaker mentioned three
Dominican nuns imprisoned for 8 years in the US
for opposing the war in Iraq. Vietnam Veteran Ron
Kovic (whose story is told in the book and film, Born
on the Fourth of July) called for resistance against
all military aggression.
Alice
Mahon, Labour Party MP and peace activist, echoed
the statements of many speakers, distinguishing between
the policies of President Bush and the American people
themselves. She cited a figure of 30,000 to 40,000
killed in Iraq, and said "we don't want a single
American to die in Iraq either". Another Labour
MP, Jeremy Corbyn cited the Project for a New American
Century as the impetus to what he views as a new rush
to arm and to promote conflict as a means to an end
rooted in power, not in values. He accused the leaders
of the Iraq War of deliberately promoting violence
in order to profit from chaos and oppression.
Corbyn
added that "world opinion" is the second
great superpower. The message was one of non-violence
and democratic values, though much of the rhetoric
was heated and severe.
The
protest was seen as a victory in itself for demonstrators,
as the Bush administration had requested that the
whole of central London, including the Underground,
be shut down to provide free access for the President.
One organizer claimed success in having effectively
"confined George Bush to house arrest in Buckingham
Palace".
LONDON
BRACES FOR BUSH
18
November 2003
In
London, police have cancelled all leave and are planning
for what is projected to be the largest protest ever
organized against a foreign leader in the UK. The
President will not address Parliament, due to apprehensions
about the possibility that labor MPs would seek to
embarass both Bush and Prime Minister Blair, if any
such address were held. British papers report that
1 in 9 policement in England and Wales will be assigned
to presidential security. [For more: Independent]
